Monday, April 25, 2016

In early 1Q16, the US carrier community pushed Buy One Get One (Free or 1/2 price) BOGOs hard in an effort to retain existing subscribers with an upsell of an additional line. In parallel with this effort was the availability of the Samsung Galaxy S7, announced in February at Mobile World Congress.

Secondarily, it has to be that Samsung continues its marketing push to retain its loyal Galaxy customers to push them to the next iteration, whether they're Galaxy S4, S5 or S6 customers.

All these BOGOs are yet continuous carrier efforts to trot out the latest hardware. But BOGOs are not new and have been used for years. Unfortunately, the era of contract free plans and equipment financing have cut into upgrade rates. In the old days, additional upgrades help retain/lock customers longer with low subsidized values. Given the sobering price tag of new devices and long term financing (24-30 months), that desire to upgrade has trended downward as more subscribers are keeping their handsets longer. Don't get me wrong, the early adopters will always have a place but the mainstream upgrade trend is slowing. Caveat: We'll see how the public en masse embraces the next generation of iPhone (7).

For those scotch watchers, Dan Meyer and I talk a bit about the scotches we're currently drinking for the webcast here. We are self-admitted newbies and don't go in-depth as dedicated scotch YouTubers do but we share our likes and other scotch thoughts.